


Pervicacious

by ChibsAndChill



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:08:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25115164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChibsAndChill/pseuds/ChibsAndChill
Summary: (adj.) pervicacious: Very obstinate; stubborn; wilfully contrary or refractory; wilful."Can I braid your hair?""No""That's a shame, you have beautiful hair."Jasper x OC
Relationships: Jasper Hale/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36





	1. Chapter 1

"Why exactly are we doing this again?" Meli broke the hour long silence in the small, outdated car they were driving. The engine hummed loudly and sputtered every now and then, proof that even the car was feeling its age and wished to retire. 

The teenager had her sock clad feet placed high on her aunt's car seat and she was half laying down in her seat at this point. The seatbealt sat tensly over her and often threatened to suffocate her when her uncle made a sharp turn or the road had a bump in it that made the car airborn. A frown twisted her face downwards and her arms were crossed tightly over the thick hoodie she wore. 

"We've been over this, Meli. We're taking you back home, where you belong." Her aunt replied, her voice light and sweeter than honey. Tala turned around in her seat and looked back at her sulking niece with a tired smile plastered on her youthful face. 

Meli snorted and stared out the car window, focusing on the green nature outside of the car instead of her family staring at her inside of it. "I never asked to go back here. I was doing fine back home. Like come on Tala, I've never even been to the states and now all of a sudden you're babbling about taking me home. This isn't my home!" Her voice had a stinging bite to it that made her aunt recoil back at the sound of it. 

"Don't talk to her like that! We're all going through tough times and we understand this is all sudden and unfamiliar for you but you need to try too." Her uncle snapped from the driving seats, his eyes glaring daggers at her in the rear mirror. Meli saw his hands clench and uncleanch on the torn leather steering-wheel. 

"Sorry" Meli muttered and rolled her eyes. 

Adriel sighed and shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I, I mean we, understand that this is tough for you, but as a family we can and will get through this. Together" He reached down into his jacket pocket and took out a bar of simply chocolate, the last bar of the foreign brand they had brought with them. Her uncle gripped the bar a bit tighter but then reached back and gave it to his niece with a slight grimace on his aging face. 

Meli thanked her uncle with a grin, knowing how much it took of him to give her his chocolate. She unwrapped the cover and took a fast bite of it, partly because she knew how much it would pain and annoy him. It was a small payback for what he said. 

The rest of the ride down to La push was spent in the same kind of silence as the one she had broken, and she went back to staring out the window and nibbling on her chocolate. Raindrops starting flowing down the window and making a soft pitter-patter sound on the scratches, dirty window that was her only escape in the lonely car. 

\---

They turned into the bumpy driveway and their new house came into view. It was one story, a decent size and much better quality than what Meli had lived in back home. It was painted red but the paint was fading and peeling off at certain parts of it. Meli stared at it with sceptical eyes, it didn't look much but it had a big garden that was filled to the brim with different kinds of flowers, plants and trees. 

A man stood in front of the house, his long black hair flowing in the wind behind him and his arms were crossed over his chest proudly and almost arrogant. She couldn't make out his face yet, but his body was muscular and his posture told her that he was ready to attack whenever the need hit him. It made her nervous to see him waiting for them, staring at them. 

"That's your cousin Paul." Tala informed her niece happily as she waved at the man, or rather teenager, outside of their car. To Meli's surprise the giant waved back to them and the scary man she had first seen turned into this happy, soft teenager with a resting bitch face. 

"Oh yeah." She replied in an 'aha' sound, she could recognise him from the family photo albums that her relatives had given them. They had never met before, she hadn't ever seen any photos with them together but there is a world outside of photographs. "I've seen him in pictures, I think"

Adriel gently brought the car to a stop and turned it off eagerly. He was the first one out of the car and had thrown an arm around his nephew before Meli had even woken up properly. Her aunt was the second one out of the car and wrapped her toned arms around Paul as if she hadn't seen him in years (which she had). Her uncle and aunt embraced her cousin harder and more eagerly than they had her when they first saw her after they came to pick her up. She would be lying if she said that she didn't feel jealous of the picture the three made together. 

Meli sighed and then unfastened her seat belt before stepping out of the car that she had been sitting in for hours. She could see Paul's eyes staring at her from over her aunt's shoulder and she froze slightly at the intensity in them. They were a soft, dark brown that so many on the reservation, her included, had. 

Her first steps were slow, careful and cautious. Her eyes were still fastened on those of her cousin, who also hadn't stopped looking at her since she stepped out of the vehicle. The gravel crunched underneath her shoes and gradually her steps grew more confident until she was striding over to where her family stood waiting for her. 

"Hi" She whispered, suddenly feeling shy as she stared up at the face of her older cousin. 

"Hey" He replied, his voice strong and confident. He shifted slightly to get one of his arms free before he in one strong movement grabbed ahold of her shoulders and dragged her into the group hug with her uncle and aunt. 

She protested slightly but slowly melted into the hug and threw her arms around the family members she could reach. The weight on her heart felt slightly lighter at that moment and she would be damned if she wasn't going to chase that happiness. 

\---

"-so that's how your uncle got that big scar on his face" Meli's aunt cackled as she finished the ten minute long story on how Paul's father got the big scar than ran diagonally down his face from a freak accident involving two branches and kids fighting. 

Meli briefly smiled but it faded when she looked over to where Paul was sitting on her uncle's right. The teenager was smiling and even laughing at the story but Meli saw through the facade; his eyes weren't smiling, she could see the pain lurking in the depth of his eyes and the slight grimace everytime he laughed or the twitch he made everytime his father was mentioned. 

"Tala, I think Paul is dreaming about the dessert" Meli interrupted her aunt who was just about to get into the next story about Paul's father's adventures. Paul snapped his head to her surprised and then his face softened and he nodded gratefully. She nodded back with a smile and then nudged her aunt to get her moving into the kitchen and bring out the dessert they had been working on. 

Her aunt stared at her with wide eyes and then stood up from her seat at the old, worn down table that they had decided to keep with them. "Well why didn't you say so, Paul? You've let me ramble about your dad while longing for the æblekage." Tala almost scolded the teenager, as if him not telling her that he wanted the treat was the worst thing he could possibly do. "I'll go get it. Meli, you hold the fort until I get back."

The girl nodded and waited until her aunt was out of sight before she exhaled and slumped in her seat. She was tempted to pop her feet up on the table but that was one step too far, especially since they had a guest. "So, Paul." She nodded at the teenager. "Where do you go to school?"

"La Push High School" Paul answered proudly as he leaned back in his chair lazily, his lips curling up into a low smirk. "You?"

"Forks High School." She replied, stroking a finger down one of the cracks in the wood, almost feeling ashamed of the school she had been enrolled in. "This guy over here decided that I should go to school with a couple of his friends' children" Her accent slightly slurred the words and putting an exotic tint to her speech. 

"Shame" Paul hummed but tensed slightly, as if the thought of her going to that school upset or worried him. "Are you sure you want to go there? Don't know if you've noticed but you're in the U.S now, it's not the same over here as where you come from." He pointed a finger at her and Meli looked at where he was pointing. 

Meli looked down on her hands, seeing the naturally tan skin there. "It'll be fine" Her uncle interuppted her thinking and cast a stern look her way. "Right, Meli"

She nodded and plastered a smile on her face but her head was spinning at her cousin's words. She had heard of the trouble people of color had in the states but she hadn't really thought of how it would affect her now that she's moved there. "Yeah, everything will be fine." Meli glanced up but averted her eyes when she saw the look of concern Paul sent her. "I'm sure they're all really nice"

The table fell into a tense silence consisting of the three casting each other suspicious looks, until Tala swaggered into the room with a steamin æblekage right from their oven. "Who wants some cake?" She stretched out the last word in a sing-song voice, not reading into the mood of the room. 

"I do" Paul replied excitedly, trying to light and hide the previously bad mood at the table. He eagerly held out his plate to his aunt and gave her an expectant look when she raised an eyebrow at the gesture. "May I have some of this eublukacke" He stumbled over the word for the dessert and winced when he heard Meli's muffled laughter. 

"Ubblaekagge" Tala corrected and that earned a loud giggle from Meli who just couldn't believe how bad they were butchering the name. The fact that her aunt corrected his pronounciation with an incorrect one just made it all the more funny. 

"It's actually pronounced æblekage" Meli butted in, her voice loud with laughter but the garbled pronounciation could still be heard for the other people around the table. "Ae-pleh-kae" She overpronounced the word and despite her best efforts she lost some of the real pronounciation due to her trying to make the sounds more 'english'. 

"Yeah, that" Tala waved away the critique and instead cut up a slice of it and dropped it on Paul's waiting plate. It flopped down on the side. "Look at that. You're not going to get married"


	2. Chapter 2

Meli stared at her wheel, feeling the stress and pressure building up inside of her at the thought of leaving the safety of her vehicle and enter the world of american high school. She had no idea what to expect and she was beginning to regret that she hadn't fought harder about the decision to send her to Forks high school instead of the LaPush one. 

Her knuckles tightened on the worn-down leather one last time before she inhaled deeply and opened her car door. It made a loud creaking noise when she forced it open and she sighed but ignored the looks she got. Most of the cars in the parking lot was around the same quality as hers, except for some cars standing with each other that were of higher quality. One of the cars was a Volvo, she noted and a brief wave of déja vu hit her from back home. 

She forced herself out of the car and forced all the negative feelings down a drain so she could overthink later. All the other teenagers outside of the school were wearing thick jackets to protect themselves against the 'cold' but Meli just stared at them stunned. She was wearing a hoodie and a pair of dark blue jeans that she had dug out of one of her many boxes labeled 'clothes'. The air was a bit chilly but the warmth of her hoodie perfectly kept it out from reaching her, any more layers and she would be sweating. She could only wonder what kind of clothes they were going to wear when it's winter. Meli shuddered at the thought that she would eventually adapt to the weather in Forks and dress just like the rest of them. 

Meli kept her head held high as she walked across the lot, paying no mind to the obvious stares from her peers that were burning holes in the back of her head. She tugged down the collar of her hoodie and then pushed open the doors leading into the large school. 

As soon as she stepped inside the school she was hit with a strong smell of sweat, cheap perfume and dreams that will never come true. The students of Fork high school bustled around the crowded hallways and they were all laughing, talking and joking around, making the volume rise through the roof and a headache forming. Her uncle had told her that she needed to go to the office to get her schedule and something he described as a piece of paper that her teachers would sign that she would later have to give back to the office. It was all sounding over complicated and confusing but she didn't mind getting away from the big crowd waiting for her that she would have to venture through. 

Her sneaker clad feet slapped loudly against the dirty, almost plastic like floor as she briskly walked towards the office. A big sign saying 'office' sat proudly on one of the bland, cream colored wall that had multiple stains and gums attached to it. Meli opened the door into the office where the receptionist sat waiting for her with big, wide, hopeful eyes framed by thick glasses. She sat behind a big sturdy desk that had a plant, some papers and some binders on it. 

Meli walked closer and an almost genuine smile grew on her face as soon as the doors shut behind her that effectively muffled out the sounds of the other students. The receptionist smiled back and took off her glasses as soon as the teenager came close enough to her working place. The older woman swept a hand through her pale blonde or even white hair that was shaved at the sides and kept long at the top. 

"Hi" Meli greeted the woman and shuffled her feet awkwardly on the floor in a deep scuff mark that was probably made by all the other students that had stood there before her. "I'm here for my schedule"

The receptionist smiled, nodded and then leaned forward slightly, placing her arms on the desk. "You're Meli Moore?" She questioned sweetly, almost overly sweet and sickly. The receptionists eyes scanned her from top to bottom, paying extra mind to her dark hair and worn-down clothing. 

"Yes" Meli confirmed confidently, sticking her nose up in the air. "I am" 

"Here's your schedule. You only have two classes each day because-" The receptionist replied after nodding at the confirmation. 

"I'd prefer it if you didn't expose my reasons, if you don't mind." The teenager interrupted the receptionist who stared at her stunned and then nodded again. Meli would prefer her reasoning to stay hidden from the public eye, or as long as she felt like she didn't want other people to know.

Meli's fingers drummed impatiently on the desk until the receptionist slowly reached towards her and gave her the schedule. She thanked the receptionist and then turned on her heels before walking out of the office. Immediately the loud volume of the students attacked her ears but she would rather be out there than inside alone with the receptionist. She walked a few steps before slumping down on a vacant bench that was pushed up to the wall. A bag of leftover fast food sat on it and empty cans of soda laid scattered around the bench. 

She pulled out the schedule and stared down on it with excited eyes. On Mondays, which it was that day, she had History and then Math. On Tuesdays she had Science and P.E, her classes that day was placed later than her Monday classes. On Wednesdays she had English and a special class dedicated to her native language that her parents had insisted on. On Thursdays she had Math followed by History and on Fridays she had History followed by P.E. "Cool" She commented and pocketed the schedule. 

"Are you the new girl?" A nasally voice asked her but by the tone of the person's voice Meli knew that it wasn't a question. 

Meli turned around to face whoever it was that had approached her and the first thing she was hit with was the cloud of eye watering cheap perfume that radiated from the brunette teenager in front of her. The girl had thin brown eyebrows, blue eyes, pale skin and her face had a roundish-shape to it. 

"Yeah, got here like five minutes ago. Why?" Meli responded and looked back down on her phone, texting her friends from back home. She was hoping that the other girl would leave her alone if she didn't encourage her to talk to her. Meli was very picky and selective about her friends and she got a bad vibe off this one. 

"No I was just wondering. You looked lonely and I'm part of the welcoming committee so I thought I'd come over and show you around the school." Her beyond high-pitched voice drilled itself into Meli's ears and she physically winced at the sound of it. The brunette teenager looked at Meli with a fake smile plastered on her lips and her eyes open so wide she almost looked like she was choking on something. 

Meli looked at the other teenager with clear disdain on her face. "I'd rather not, thank you. I'll show myself around" 

"I-oh-I-" The girl stuttered, having taken a few steps backwards at the blunt rejection coming from the foreign girl before her. The brunette collected herself and glared at Meli before scoffing, turning her nose in the air and then walking away from her. 

"Bye bye" Meli mocked and waved sarcastically at the retreating back of the other teenager, who was practically fuming at this point. Just by that one reaction to rejection Meli knew that that girl was not someone that she would want to associate herself with. 

The bell rung and Meli rushed to collect the things she had managed to strew around her in the short time she had been sitting at the dirty bench. She had of course forgotten a pen, just like she had laid awake the night before tossing and turning about. 

Meli shrugged on the small, cream colored shoulder bag she had deemed suitable for carrying her school material until she graduated and she was free from school. She had no plans to go to university but instead had plans to settle down in the reservation among her family, learn about her people and hopefully contribute to her community. 

\---

The small-town girl rushed through the open doorway leading into the small classroom she was going to spend most of her week in. This classroom was room 394 in the big school, which could imply there were at least 393 other classrooms, but there weren't. There were to her understanding not even close to that number of classrooms in the school but the numbers lived on from the earlier days of the school. 

Her teacher, Mrs Lecter, stood at the front of the classroom in a grey blazer and white suit pants. Meli tried to rush past her unnoticed so that he could sneak into one of the unoccupied seats like she wasn't even there but her stern-looking teacher stopped her as soon as she walked into the room with a "Ms Moore, I hear you're new here at Forks High School", to which Meli turned eyes to the floor and while fighting off a blush relied with "Yes, Mrs Lecter." 

The teacher placed a manicured hand daintily on her cocked hip and raised an eyebrow at the less than enthusiastic response she received from her new student. "I've heard great things about you from your other school. I hope you will perform just as good, if not better than you did at your previous school."

Meli forced her eyes up to meet Mrs Lecter's and hers widened when she noticed the almost soulless black the eyes were. She could barely see her teacher's pupil amongst the sea of color so dark it was almost pitch black. "Yes, Mrs lecter." Meli responded and pushed part of her hair behind her ear to keep it out of her face. 

"Take a seat next to Mr Hale. Mr Hale, please raise your hand" Mrs Lecter's clear authority of the class showed as Hale's hand immediately shot into the air without hesitation. Her harsh scowl eased slightly at the sight and curled into a barely there smirk. 

Meli walked over to where this 'Hale', her new benchmate, sat and she kept her eyes fastened on the back wall to avoid seeing the stares from the other students. There was a slight shake in her legs from the tense first meeting she had with Lecter but that eased when she saw her Hale. He was shining like a lone light in an overwhelming darkness, resilient to the continuous pressure from the darkness to disappear. 

She almost stopped, stunned by the beauty of Hale but she forced her legs to keep moving forward even though all she wanted to do was stop and admire him. His wavy honey-blond hair that almost shone like the purest gold when the small beams of light hit it just right. His eyes were dark and she could see the waves of conflict and burning pain inside of them if she stared long enough. 

Meli sat down at the desk and hung her bag on the back of her chair. Her eyes were still placed on her benchmate but he still hadn't cast her a single look. Hale had strong, high cheekbones and a defined, sharp jaw. His skin was the palest shade of white she had ever seen in her entire life, like he had never seen the sun in all of his life and then some. He had a hint of purple shadows underneath his eyes that contrasted against the paleness of his skin. 

"Hi" She breathed out after tearing her eyes away from the intimidatingly, and almost frighteningly beautiful teenager besides her. "I'm Meli, nice to meet you" Meli continued and raised her hand towards the boy who still hadn't looked at her, seemingly ignoring her. 

"Hello" His silky smooth voice, almost like honey, warmed her and enveloped her in a blanket of warmth and security. "My name is Jasper, it's nice to meet you ma'am" 

"Jasper" Meli repeated with a smile on her face. 

She reached down into her bag to get some of the material but stopped short when she remembered that she had forgotten to bring a pencil, which was one of the main things one needs when in school. "Do you have a-" Meli begun but stopped short when she saw the pale hand already holding a pen in front of her face, waiting for her to grab it. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, ma'am" Jasper replied curtly and nodded his head briskly once, making his hair bop with the motion. His voice was stiff, formal and well thought through. Meli stiffened slightly at the response and vibes he kept giving off. 

She gripped the pencil harder and stared down at the piece of paper Mrs Lecter had placed on her desk prior to the class starting. "Meli. My name is Meli, and I would appreciate it if you used it"She hadn't meant to snap at him like that, even if her words didn't have a bite to them, but she was subconsciously adapting to the same kind of snappish tone he had to his voice. 

"Meli" Jasper nodded and briefly threw a look at her, his eyes still narrowed in pain and eyebrows furrowed tightly. 

"That wasn't so hard now was it" 

Jasper ignored her from that point on and as soon as the bell ran, showing that class was over, he rushed out of the room without looking back a single time, making Meli glare after the confusing teenage boy. 


	3. Chapter 3

"Ugh", Meli groaned before packing up her things and walking briskly out of the crowded classroom. Her blood was boiling at his dismissal of her and how he had pushed past her without even saying 'sorry'. "I let my guard down for like two seconds and this happens"

She picked up the map she had been given and whilst walking she unfolded it before quickly locating the math classroom. Said classroom was just a corridor away from her history one and was supposed to be taught by a 'Mr Graham'. Peculiar name, she thought before folding the paper and placing it back in her bag. Meli hoped Jasper wouldn't be in her next class or she would feel really awkward after their first meeting that was hopefully their last too.

Meli pushed past the crowds in the small hallway with an angry sigh and multiple glares at people that tried to talk to her. She muttered danish curses under her breath until she broke through the thick pack of humans that hindered her before. Meli pushed the bag higher up on her shoulder and huffed before going through the open doorway that led into a cream-colored classroom that was still relatively empty of students; only a few chatted amongst friends and Jasper. Jasper sat in the back by a window and his face was turned towards the window and eyes staring into the forest as if he was dreaming of being out there, free. Her face hardened but as she turned her head around to face the teacher standing behind his small desk full of drawings that had the initials H.L at the top and a small heart ( a realistic one) drawed underneath it.

"You must be miss Moore" His deep, rough voice whispered out, his eyes averted away from hers but his face was angled towards her. "My wife told me about you. Only good things, though, she can be... scary and intimidating.", he chuckled and smiled, his eyes twinkling at the thought of his wife just a hallway away.

"Thank you, Mr Graham" Meli said and clutched her bag tighter to her side. "Do you need to sign this?"

"Call me Graham" Her teacher muttered, his eyes flashing towards her before dancing away as if they had never looked at her. His hands clenched and unclenched around the plastic pointer in his hands. "Mr, sir, it's all too... formal for me"

Meli bowed her head and looked up at him through her lashes. "Sorry m- I mean Graham."

"It's okay. Go sit next to Mr Hale, I'm sure you know him already" Graham tried to lighten the awkward air around them and pointed to the blond boy who was still staring out the window as if his whole future was out there and his past inside.

"Quite" Meli chuckled and placed her slip of paper back amongst the others in her backpack, the pen weighing tons as she walked closer to the boy who had given it to her.

The native girl dropped into the seat next to the tall boy and hung her bag on the back of her chair before tugging out some papers and the pen she had borrowed. She sighed when Jasper didn't even glance in her direction and ignored her presence. Meli stretched out the pen to his side of the desk when his own hand shot back and prevented her from dropping it.

"Keep it" he muttered, still looking away from her and avoiding direct skin to skin contact. "I have more pens"

"If you say so" Meli whistled out and placed the pen besides her block of papers, some of them falling out of the perfect stack she had placed them in, making her huff and hastily putting them back. "Do you know why Graham doesn't like being sir?"

"Graham's non-binary. Held a lecture about it a few weeks ago, shame you missed it" A frank voice spoke from behind her. "I'm Katerina. Weird name, right? Mom says it's from her bulgarian cousin or something but dad says she got it off google"

Jasper scoffed lightly and turned his body even further away from Meli. She glared at the irritable teenage boy before turning around to look at the bald girl behind her that smiled brightly once she realised Meli noticed her.

"What's non-binary?" Meli asked, confused at the term.

"You don't know? Oh right, you weren't here when they held the lecture, was really interesting, never would have known otherwise." Katerina babbled, twirling her cap on her finger as she looked straight at Meli without blinking. "Non-binary is a lot of things, but Graham over there doesn't identify as male or female, hence them not wanting you to call them sir"

Meli made an 'aha' sound and nodded her head. That made more sense, she thought to herself. "Thank you Katerina", she thanked the pale girl sitting behind her, doing her best not to stare at her head or at her face too much. She didn't want to seem rude, nor give the girl pity for being different.

"It's okay for you to look you know." Katerina chuckled, bringing one of her milky white hands up to stroke her head before letting the hand slap down on her sweater covered legs. "I have a disease. It's called-uh- Alopecia totalis, basically means I don't have hair, eyebrows or eyelashes. When I was younger I used to pretend to be an alien but nowadays I can strut down the hallways without having to pretend I'm from another planet."

The dark-haired girl stared mutely at Katerina, speechless and throwing Jasper desperate looks. "That's great Katerina."

"You say my name funny"

"I'm danish" Meli countered, her smile not as genuine anymore, not at all appreciating the jab at her obvious accent. "Thanks for telling me about hi- I mean them, Graham."

"You're welcome" Katerina beamed and then promptly ended the conversation.

Meli turned back around, seeing the slight motion in Jasper's shoulders as if he was laughing at her but she wrote it off as her imagining it. Her, or Jasper's, pen found its way back in her hand and she resumed spinning it around. Graham hadn't started the class yet, about five minutes of break remained and so far she had spent it in total silence with Jasper.

"Hey Jasper." She spoke up, her eyebrows furrowing and lips curling up. "Why are you so silent? Aren't you americans supposed to be really extroverted and loud?"

He scoffed, the first reaction he had given her, and tilted his head in her direction. His curls moved with the movement and she had to suppress the urge to touch it for it looked like spun gold. "Aren't you danish supposed to be blonde, blue-eyed and speak like a potato is stuck in your throat?"

"Wait hold up." She chuckled, putting her hands up. "I never said anything about your looks, you really don't have anything else to come with? That's surprising, talk to a swede and they'll tell you all about it"

He didn't reply to her joke, and slight jab at both herself and the swedes.

"You know it's kinda funny that they put both of us in the same class twice in a row, right?" Meli said after a while, rolling her thumbs when he didn't respond to that either. "You know the more you act like this the more I'll talk"

"Then talk." He growled at her, his eyes dark and wild. "See if I care"

"Rude" She made a 'tsk' sound and waved her finger. "You're supposed to be nice to the new girl, not whatever it is you're doing." Meli pointed out and gestured to him being turned away from her and his obvious reluctance to talk to her. "You don't like me very much, do you?"

"No"

"That's fine", she smiled and nodded her head. "You don't need to like me to talk to me"

Silence fell upon the pair and Meli flicked her finger on the desk before she sighed. "You know what? Since you clearly don't want to talk I'm going to talk your ear off." Her eyes held a playful look to them, that Jasper couldn't see because he was still turned away from her.

"Please don't." The teenager rasped out.

Meli scoffed and fingered the little braid she had made in her hair, having chosen not to do one of the more traditional styles she usually worse so that she could fit in better. She regretted it now, she could have used some of the confidence and reassurance that the styles gave her, and the strength it gave her.

She opened her mouth to keep on speaking but Graham interrupted her as they announced the start of class with a timid whisper that still managed to be carried all the way to the back.

"Turn to page 394, uh, circles and, uh, triangles." Graham instructed them and Meli did as they said and softly chuckled under her breath at the number. If they had black hair, crooked nose and a black robe it would be perfect.

She was absentmindedly turning pages when she saw Jasper move in the corner of her eye, leaning towards her. "That's the wrong page, ma-... Meli." He told her and reached over her to help her get to the right page, carefully avoiding any skin contact or eye-contact.

"Did you just- Did you just smell me?" Meli asked incredulously when she heard Jasper inhale close to her hair, her heart stuttering but eyes narrowed into slits. Meli's finger twitched and hands softly shook. "You're one weird boy, Jasper Hale."

"It's difficult to avoid", he muttered and leaned back in his seat, facing away from her again.

"It's really not." Meli countered in a whisper.

The blond teenager didn't respond and read the pages they had just turned to with a bored gaze. Every now and then his eyes flickered over to watch her as she for the first time since meeting him was silent and paying attention to whatever it was that Graham was talking about.

Meli was taking some notes of what was being said in a mix of danish and english. "I can feel you staring at me." She muttered to him without looking at him, her accented voice low and unbothered. "Your mood swings are worse then mine when the devil comes to visit me once a month."

Her pen hit the table and she sighed out in frustration, turning her eyes to him in an agitated motion. "So, you're just going to stare at me and then not even respond when I'm talking to you? What with all that ma'am shit I thought you'd be courteous or whatever it is you call it these days."

His upper lip curled up and one of his eyes twitched as he stared at her, eyes impossibly dark and hands clenching his pen in a death grip. If Meli wasn't as tired as she was she would have questioned the rumble she heard from him, but she was tired and wrote it off as her imagining the sound to make up for his lack of vocal response.

"You suck at making first impressions, sir." She said the last part mockingly, tilting an invisible hat before turning back to her scribbles and lecture. "But that's fine. I guess people in this town let you get away with it since you're handsome. You should smile more, though."

"Yours wasn't any better." He shot back, eyes fleeting and mouth barely curling up in amusement.

Meli gasped and stared at him with her jaw dropped. "He speaks! You had me worried there for a second." The native girl chuckled and brushed some of the loose strands of her hair away from her face. "Thought you'd forgot how."

"You are insufferable." He replied and looked out the window.

"I know, all part of my charm." Meli sighed and shook her head. Her dark eyes regarded him cautiously, she had already let her guard down too much with him. "But I get it, you're not the talkative type. That's fine, but some conversation would be nice every now and then. You know, to keep the mood up and not get swallowed by the dark cloud that is school."

She turned back to face her teacher and looked at the mess that was her notes before taking her eraser. Meli erased some part of them and replaced them with what she thought was the correct notes but wasn't entirely sure. Graham was still talking in that slow, quiet and mysterious voice they held, the kind of voice that is pained, the one that draws you in and keeps your attention. They were pacing in front of the class, arms crossed over their chest and eyes avoiding theirs. Meli looked at the clock and sighed in relief as she saw that she would soon be released from that lesson and be able to go home. Her hands were shaking, back aching and eyes threatening to fall shut.

"And that is why you should never use this technique when calculating this." Graham gestured to the circle he had sloppily drawn on the whiteboard.

Meli shrugged, having not listened to what he had said before that. She packed up her things and just as she finished throwing down her pen she heard the tell-tale scraping of chairs, loud chattering and shuffling footsteps.

"Bye Jasper." She told him and reached down to poke him in the side before rushing out of the classroom before he could pass her. She was finally going to go home again, the day having drained her far too much to even think of going through another lesson.


End file.
